eyes watching god :: essays research papers

In the beginning of the 20th century, it was a new era for everything, especially literature. Two new and unique literary movements began; Local Color and Naturalism. Local Color with its distinct character tone and Naturalism with its weak main character was knowingly cherished by readers. As a response to Darwinism and the inequality in America, Naturalism opened Americans’ eyes of the individual being defeated by society. Local Color freed the minds of the readers as well as the writers by putting the tone of the actual character, not everyone being sophisticated and educated. Despite the fact that Naturalism and Local Color was love, there were two notorious books of each kind; The Awakening, Naturalism, and Their Eyes were Watching God, Local Color. The Awakening by Kate Chopin was banned from most of the places and Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, a talented African-American writer, was hated by her own race. Both of the books have a main character th at searches for life’s delirium; Edna Pontellier and Janie Starks. Their idea of life’s delirium was to find the perfect marriage run by love and find the true joy by and through love. Though they seem to carry the same conflict, they have similarities as well as differences in both of the novels and the characters. Though they are coming from two different literary movements, The Awakening and Their Eyes were Watching God’s main character Janie Starks and Edna Pontellier had similarities. They were similar in that they both didn’t marry because they loved their spouse. Janie was forced to marry Logan because her grandmother wanted Janie to be happy with a rich man before she leaves Earth. Instead of considering what Janie would want, love, Janie’s grandma made Janie do it her way. Janie was asking herself, â€Å"did marriage compel love like the sun the day?† Edna married because she wanted to rebel against her parents. Her father hating the fact that Leonce was Catholic pushed it off the edge for her wanting to get married. â€Å"Add to this the violent opposition of her father†¦(and) we need seek no further for the motives which led her to accept (Leonce).† Both of these characters got bored of their marriage. Janie never loved Logan, making her run awa y from him, and Edna’s love for Leonce died as soon as the fact that she was rebelling towards her parents disappeared.